By Your Side, For the Future
by Lesprit-de-escalier
Summary: Set in high school, Tami and Machi come to terms with what they mean to each other. A Hanayamata fanfiction, because we are severely lacking. Edit: FF added a Hanayamata section, so it will now be found there, instead of Misc.


_I've watched her for years. _

A blue-haired high school girl made herself at home, inspecting the contents of a desk she hasn't seen in a very long time.

_Ever since we were little, I've watched her. When she would take notes during class, when she would get picked up by her father after school to be taken to her daily lessons… As she looked up at me with that beautiful smile, I could never take my eyes off of her._

One step, two step.

The girl wandered the room inquisitively, taken in new scents and sights, reminiscing on the old.

_Even now, I… _

"Machi-chan!"

She jumped. A similar-in-age brown haired girl looked up at the sound of her name. Apparently she was too busy thinking about her to be paying any real attention to her.

"Y-yes, Tami?"

Tami strode over to where Machi sat, and pulled her to her feet. She led her to a corner of the room that housed a dresser with a small array of stuffed animals and sunflower paraphernalia on top of it. Machi loved sunflowers, as did she love cute things, such as stuff animals, and Tami.

Tami pointed to her, a papercraft sunflower. "Do you remember when I made this for you? It was the day after we became friends, and we spent hours getting to know each other on the swing set!"

The taller girl blushed, "How could I forget? I didn't think you'd go and make something so lovely for me right after that…"

Tami placed her hands on the dresser, looking as if she was thinking about something.

"And you kept this all this time?"

"Well of course I did. It's… It's, uh, it's important to me..." Machi trailed off on the last part of her sentence, her face growing even redder.

"What was that, Machi-chan?" Tami's interest was piqued, but at the same time she knew she was just teasing the girl. Machi had a tough aura about her, but deep down, like most girls of this type, as her thoughts turned to Yaya for a moment, she gets embarrassed rather easily.

"I said it was important to me, okay?" Machi left the blue-haired girl's side and walked to the opposite part of the room. "You haven't come to visit me at home in so long, why do it today?"

"Do you not like me being here?"

"It's not that! I'm just wondering why it… took you so long."

Tami looked to Machi from across the room. She knew it had taken her a long time to find the time to come back here. After all that's happened, and after entering high school, neither of them crossed paths quite as much. Not since middle school.

"I'm sorry. I know I took a while, but I'm here now, aren't I?" She took a few steps towards the girl.

Machi's expression changed. She felt a tinge of sadness, but also a tinge of anger. "You're here now, but what about tomorrow? What about next week? I can't stand not seeing you as often. You took up your lessons again, and I was put on the back-burner. I thought that was coming to an end when we joined the Yosakoi club back then, but I guess not." Machi was hurt. She was sincerely hurt that the girl she loved for so long seemed to consider her unimportant, in comparison to all the lessons she thought she never really cared for.

"That's what I came here today to talk to you about!" Tami looked distressed, knowing how Machi can get when she gets upset about something she truly believes is true. "Machi-chan, I told my father that I'm finished with those lessons. I've been taking them for years, and I'm old enough to choose my own path, what I want to do, for my own future."

Machi wouldn't take that. Seriously? She said basically the same thing in middle school, what makes today any different? "Oh really? Your future? What exactly is that future, then?"

"Machi-chan, I—"

"No, don't. Don't do that. Every time you say my name like that, I can't ever follow through scolding you. Tami, do you have a plan for when we graduate?" Machi was fuming. The poor girl was always quick to temper.

"Yes, I mean, I do. I'm going to a university, but that's not all it is. That's not all I want!" Tami tried to retort as best she could, in hopes of getting through to the thick-headed girl.

"That's not all you want? You should probably decide how to get it, then, and leave me out of it. I'm not going through you pulling me in and leaving again."

"Machi-chan, listen to me, please! That's not what I mean!"

"When that time comes, I certainly hope I—" She was stopped mid-sentence when a gentle force had embraced her, and wrapped itself around her mid-section. "Wh-"

"Machi. You. You are my future."

Machi's eyes widened in disbelief. Her arms had lowered themselves reluctantly onto the shorter girl's back.

"We're graduating very soon, and I'll admit that I don't really know what you plan on doing after high school, Machi-chan, but I…" Tami tightened her grasp on Machi and buried her face into her chest, "I hope that you can find a place for me."

The taller girl was left speechless. All these years, she'd been waiting for those words.

"I'm going to a university, and I know I'll figure out my career from there. But during that time, during that important time of exploration, I need to know you'll be by my side. You have to be the rock I come home to every night, just like how I want to be for you."

She smiled, and returned the embrace a little fuller. "You dummy, you'll always have a place next to me. Actually, I wouldn't have it any other way." Machi kissed Tami's forehead in apology, "I'm… I'm sorry I yelled at you."

Tami looked up at her, once again, with those big beautiful eyes. "Hee-hee, it's okay! I know you didn't really mean that stuff."

Now that the mood had lightened up, Tami thought it was time to do a little more bonding they'd missed out on in recent years. Machi felt this too, though in a more worried fashion after she'd caught the glint of mischief in Tami's eye.

Tami took a small step back from Machi, reached up and took her glasses off, setting them on the bedside table.

"Tami…?"

"Machi-chan. I feel that it's best we reaffirm our relationship with each other, especially since we haven't ever had the chance to even during our high school days!" Tami put both hands on her hips and stood up straight, putting on playful authority.

Machi laughed a little, "So what does that mean, then?"

"It means…"

Tami took a step forward. Machi took one back. Tami, another forward. Machi, growing increasingly flustered, took two back.

Tami's eyes darted to the left of Machi's figure, and with a soft giggle, she pushed Machi backwards so that her knees bent to the edge of the bed, sitting her down while Tami climbed on top.

"Wh-what are you doing?!" Machi was in for it now. You could almost imagine Machi was suffering from a fever, as red as her face had gotten.

Tami answered by kissing the taller girl's cheek, effectively getting her to shut the hell up.

The blue-haired girl started to undo the buttons on Machi's uniform, silently thanking whoever designed their high school uniforms that they were no longer the pull-over style.

Her hands traveled downwards, with every button coming undone, the temperature in the room seemed to rise.

Tami placed a gentle kiss on Machi's neck, and trailed equally soft kisses down to her chest. She brought herself back up to whisper in Machi's ear, "lie down." She obliged willingly.

Tami found this position a lot more convenient. She ran her fingers over Machi's body, to which the girl reacted with a gasp, and trailed her kisses down even further. Ever so slowly, she took hold of either sides of the girl's top.

"T-Tami…I—"

A loud, "hyaa!" was heard throughout the Tokiwa household, as Tami ripped open her uniform suddenly.

"Ah, this is much better!"

"Much better for who?! I-I can't, Tami, just, look the other way, damn it!" Machi was trying her best to cover her exposed body, but not much could be done if one is only wearing a bra. A rather cute, lacey pink bra at that.

"My my, Machi-chan, I never knew you wore such cute underwear! Does the carpet match the drapes, perhaps?" Tami chimed. She seemed very pleased with herself.

"Does the—?! That's not even how you're supposed to use that!"

Tami closed the distance between them with a gentle kiss. It was their first kiss in quite a while.

_She's… her lips are so soft. I thought I'd never feel them again like this.._

Aside from the one thought, Machi's mind was reeling. It was like a dream to her.

"Machi-chan, I love you."

"… I love you, too, Tami."

Tami smiled at her, and gave her another reassuring kiss on the cheek. "Do your best to calm down, okay?" Machi gave her an innocent look, she assumed that meant 'okay.'

The blue-haired girl continued to venture further down Machi's torso, kissing at intervals every so often. She stopped at a particular place on Machi's left hip.

"A mole to match your sister's, hm?"

"I don't think that's.. what that is.."

Tami kissed the mark with love, causing Machi to shiver.

Lower, and lower, Tami continued taking in every inch of Machi she'd promise never to miss again.

Hearts were beating and palms were sweating as Tami stopped right above the hemline of Machi's skirt. There was a silence in the room, neither of the girls seemed to move after a long while, it's as if they couldn't decide whether or not to take the next step.

_Ba-dump, ba-dump._

Machi, not knowing what to do with her hands and overwhelmed with anxiousness, laid one wrist over her eyes and bit her other hand's knuckle.

_Ba-dump, ba-dump._

Tami, usually graceful and collected after many years of training in arts such as flower-arrangement, piano, and the like, couldn't stop her hands from shaking as she placed her fingers over the hemline.

_Ba-dump, ba-dump._

She enclosed her fingers around the edge of the skirt, and began to pull it down, when—

"Machiiiii! I'm hooooome! I brought food!" A loud crash of an opening door could be heard downstairs.

The two girls sat up with a quickness, Machi covering herself with a blanket, cursing in a hushed tone, Tami now sitting on the floor, giggling at the elder sister's timing.

"Damn it, out of all the times! She could kill to have better timing, ugh."

Tami stood up and brushed herself off. "I wonder what she's brought for dinner."

"Nevermind that, just, fix yourself up before we go downstairs!" Machi, for some reason, was scrambling to redo her uniform buttons.

Tami grasped the girl's wrists, stopping her frantic actions. "You look like _you're_ the one who needs to fix yourself up, Machi-chan!"

"And whose fault is that?"

The shorter girl took hold of the taller one's cheek, and brought her down for a chaste kiss. The kiss lingered for several seconds, Machi finally becoming slightly less nervous about her newfound 'official' lover. Official? Probably.

Tami closed her eyes. "You're right, you're right. Let's just go greet your sister now, okay?"

Machi softened her expression. Sigh. She could never say no to her. "Alright."

Tami proceeded to leave the room first. Walking past Machi, she whispered briefly, "we'll just have to continue next time." With a triumphant 'tee-hee,' Machi was left alone in the room, dealing with her immediate blush at the girl's comment.

She sighed, taking her glasses from off the table and putting them back on.

"…Our future, huh?"

She looked forward to it.


End file.
